Thinking of moving to California to follow my dreams, any advice

I believe there's not only more like minded people for me over there but a lot more excitement and opertunaties in the arts over there, either that or New York. I'm not sure if there's anyone here who felt simular and successfully live there. I want to go out there and follow my dreams, I know that it can be a rough road but I feel with an optimistic take of mind, I can tackle any kind of problem. So any advice anyone could give? I'm already starting to pack up my apartment but I'm still not quite sure where to go but I'm hoping to get something pitched and to get a job in general within comedic media and hopefully adult puppetry / adult animation.

If that's where you think you would have the best opportunities to succeed in the future, then I think you should go for it. However, I would highly recommend considering all sorts of potential outcomes before you move. For example, where will you live in Los Angeles? How will you get there? Do you have enough money to hold yourself down while you look for a job in the entertainment world? What will you do for a living if you have to wait awhile to get a break? Things like that.

I don't want to sound like a downer, but moving cross-country would be a huge step in your life, and I think you should do some serious planning before you take that step.

I agree. It's great to follow your dreams, but also necessary to inject a little reality in there too. A lot of people go to New York or Hollywood in search of their big break, so depending on your field you might run into some stiff competition. (There are so many singers/dancers/actors aspiring to make it on Broadway, even if it means living in a broom closet and bussing tables for a while). Same in L.A.- everyone convinced they're on the verge of that big movie /tv/record deal- but you might be paying some dues first.

I certainly don't want to discourage you from following your dreams- that's what makes you unique and don't you dare let anyone take them away from you- but just don't give up if things don't happen immediately. You could see a big payoff, but it might take a little time. If you're patient enough to wait, and determined to keep going no matter what, the sky's the limit, my friend. Best of luck to you.

I posted this awhile back, veteran voice actor Dan Gilvezan shared this advice in his book My Life as a G1 Transformer:

"Often when people find out what I do for a living, they will say something like, 'my friends tell me I have a good voice, maybe I should get into that whole voiceover thing.' Well maybe. But before you do I have a few suggestions: First of all, take some classes: in acting, voice and speech, improv. Study music (you may be asked to sing), psychology (you need to know people), business (it's called show business, after all). Spend a few years working for very little money, on projects that will very likely go nowhere, for people who won't appreciate what you've done for them. Deal with unscrupulous characters out to fleece you, bamboozle you and hoodwink you at every turn. Lay out thousands of dollars on workshops, showcases, publicity materials, photos, resumes, demos, printing, postage and mailing, trade publications, union dues, agent's fees. Spend countless hours going on hundreds of auditions for jobs you'll never get. Face frustration, disappointment and disillusionment every living day of your life.

A lot of people go to New York or Hollywood in search of their big break, so depending on your field you might run into some stiff competition.

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Yeah, I've heard that there's competition. But as an artist I feel never to compete but just to make art of stuff I personally would love to see more of and make it for myself and like minded people would follow except the other way around like most people in the industry usually say. Because in truth, no one knows what they want until something catches their eye in some way, either with a laugh, for music, or something much deeper within themselves which they can relate to, I think this aspect alone is one of the most beautiful things about art. But not just in career, it seems like there's so much excitement and appreciation for pop culture. The new stuff is advertised everywhere but there's got to be some old school pop art like minded people that I can someday socialize with. Long story short, I don't got much of a social life where I'm at and I just want to get out of the current living situation I'm in now and hope for a brighter future.

My plan is to basicly send out quarries or whatever I can to get my art attention and hopefully get something going and if all success (with the addition of figuring out multipule incomes), I can live the life I've always dreamed of. Not so much the rich and glamer but socializing with like minded people and seeing new things of my interest beyond the internet. Sorry if I seem to be rambling, but I feel so passionate about it Sure I've been told lots of stuff and even people telling me negative stuff from time to time, but I've always seemed to be the person no matter what negative situation happens, I have the automatic ability to get back up with an optistic state of mind.

But totally know that it's not easy money wise, that's why I'm thinking of money to fund everything first, however I can fund it. And afterwords I'm on my marry way Like the I Love Lucy song "California Here I Come!" (I love that show)

I posted this awhile back, veteran voice actor Dan Gilvezan shared this advice in his book My Life as a G1 Transformer:

"Often when people find out what I do for a living, they will say something like, 'my friends tell me I have a good voice, maybe I should get into that whole voiceover thing.' Well maybe. But before you do I have a few suggestions: First of all, take some classes: in acting, voice and speech, improv. Study music (you may be asked to sing), psychology (you need to know people), business (it's called show business, after all). Spend a few years working for very little money, on projects that will very likely go nowhere, for people who won't appreciate what you've done for them. Deal with unscrupulous characters out to fleece you, bamboozle you and hoodwink you at every turn. Lay out thousands of dollars on workshops, showcases, publicity materials, photos, resumes, demos, printing, postage and mailing, trade publications, union dues, agent's fees. Spend countless hours going on hundreds of auditions for jobs you'll never get. Face frustration, disappointment and disillusionment every living day of your life.

Then prepare yourself for things to get rough."

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I can totally relate to that. lol It reminds me of a funny story of someone I meet once who told me that he has a huge interest in the voice artists industry. He know who Billy West, Tom Kenny, Charles Adler, etc. where and I was impressed. So I do some voices and he'd be like, cool I can probably do it a little better and every voice he did sounded the same as his own, barely a difference. And he was like, wasn't that great. And I felt so bad for him and I politely said, keep practicing and you'll do fine. Plus my best friend and I do voices all time time imitated our favorite fiction characters and celebrities just to make each other laugh. He told me I can do better impressions that he can but I think I've always tried to get him to do voices for a recording for a film I was working on and whatnot because even though he can't do many, he's got this uniqe raspy voice that's simular to his own but more exaggerated but he's always more confortable out of the spotlight unlike me. lol

But yeah classes, I has a drama class student in 2 classes in high school. Everyone wanted to do Shakespeare or Hollywood drama and I just wanted laughs. lol The 2nd class there was this kid who was so full of himself just wanting to compete but I preferred to stick to my own thing. He even stool my lines in some class theater assinement and I desided to be nice to him and say that he did a good performance and not even mention that he stool my lines. But he ended up giving me a dirty look which technically should be the other way around? lol But it seems like I was the only one who was most enthusiastic about all this while everyone else just got typical jobs and lifestyles. I must have been the only kid in high school with a public access show and no one cared. lol But I was always happy doing my own thing. Even in my Humor class in high school (I went to an artsy high school, pretty cool.) and I was always so interested in learning but sadly I knew everything in the class and didn't learn anything new except for new literature. I knew more then the teacher and the teacher was so amazed with my enthusiastic wanting to learn additude while everyone else just viewed me as a teachers pet. Before I go completely off subject, I just wanted to add that the boyfriend of a female friend I hung out with in high school was in my class and he always disliked me. He staired at me the whole time I was in that class, he even bumped me if he walked past me. Whatever.

Long story short, life can totally be rough, even in adult hood but I've always believed that if you got what you love in your heart and you just go after your dreams no matter the rocky road of whatever it takes, it'll all come out great in the end.

Btw just wanted to share this too, here's a recent advertisement Dan Gilvezan did for his book, voicing his old Transformers character Bumblebee. It's amazing, his voice hasn't changed at all even after so many years! (Note: The animation was done by this very talented fan and his company who has several videos on youtube).

In other words they were jealous that they weren't as automatically knowledgeable on a topic, lol.

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They were jealous that I was getting better grades probably. I remember I originally got a B- in my first week and I freaked out and I went to the teacher as I was like "This subject is my life, what I do?" and he explained he's also an english teacher and my spelling wasn't the best (I'm sure people who've read my posts probably already know that, even with spell check. lol) so I used spell check on my computer and just typed my resports and homework on my computer instead of hand writing and it went A+ sense. Plus I did tons of extra credit projects even though they weren't related to any kind of assignment. The teacher was always flexible. And when I had a teacher / parent meeting, he was there and he grabbed my shoulders and shouted to everyone "I LOVE THIS KID! NEVER HAD A STUDENT LIKE THIS EVER!" good times

Btw just wanted to share this too, here's a recent advertisement Dan Gilvezan did for his book, voicing his old Transformers character Bumblebee. It's amazing, his voice hasn't changed at all even after so many years! (Note: The animation was done by this very talented fan and his company who has several videos on youtube).

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I got to share this with my best friend as soon as he gets back from his Disney World vacation, he's a huge fan of Transformers.

I'm just wishing I could help. I know quite a bit of Californians from another Forum chat, I'm in. But I don't know how big they are or even if they are . There were some in the entertainment world. One I met while being over there, worked for NBC and another from Pixar. While being over there with them in Disneyland, they were talking over my head to be honest when I brought up anything in entertainment. They got very into how something is made. While I would start to shrink and think that I'm only from Delaware mode. I simply loved the story.